He feels right at home at Humarock Beach

Keith Dobie, a longtime Scituate resident who lives on Humarock Beach, shared his memories of the beach and how it has changed during his lifetime.

Cody Shepard The Enterprise @cshepard_ENT

SCITUATE -- Few people have as many fond memories of Humarock Beach as Keith Dobie, a Scituate resident who has lived on the beach for much of his life.

Dobie’s family moved to Scituate in 1903, and the home he lives in today was built in 1941, the year he was born. He moved into the home and began living there year-round in 1979, but he spent almost all of his childhood summers at the house.

“The day school was out, I was here,” he said.

Dobie stayed with his grandmother at the house every summer through his college years. His parents would only visit on the weekends.

When he was 5 or 6, Dobie would go flounder fishing with his grandmother. It remains one of his favorite memories.

“She was kind of a true pioneer-type woman,” he said. “She would clean the fish and we would come back and cook them for dinner.”

When he was young. Dobie spent a lot of time with kids from Scituate.

“There were a lot more kids then,” he said. “Kids would gather by the bridge and just hang out and aggravate Scituate police.”

Dobie said there are still probably a lot of kids in Humarock; you just don’t see as many outside.

“Socially, in the ’50s, it was pretty much the days of rock ’n’ roll and muscle cars and not much television,” he said. “There are probably a lot of kids here, but they stay home and play video games. They don’t gather outside like they used to.”

Dobie remembers spending time with some of those same kids on the beach.

“Very seldom would I go sit down at the beach in front of my own house,” he said. “I would go down maybe 20 homes and there would be at least 20 kids sitting on the beach with portable radios listening to Elvis Presley.”

More than 50 years later, Dobie is still at the beach often. He loves to swim and is in the water a lot.

“It’s good exercise,” he said

Both the beach and the town have changed considerably during his lifetime. He said the shape of the beach has changed, and the sand goes up to the sea wall at the public portion of the beach.

“It’s just different,” he said. “I think there was more sand on the beach then, but sand comes and goes with storms. It’s not the horror story some people have portrayed, though.”

Dobie is still happy to live at Humarock Beach, where he said he belongs.

“I always said I was going to be here. I’m an outdoors person; I like to fish and sail. It’s just what I’m drawn to. I always have been.”